How To Combat Mobile Abandoned Shopping Carts

How To Combat Abandoned Shopping Carts On Mobile

Anyone who has been in any type of customer sales position before knows the routine to making more sales.

More customer leads = more face to face meetings = increased sales. Which is why the majority of your marketing expenditure goes on finding new business.

For an eCommerce website that means more expenditure on pay per click or SEO to attract new customers. But could you make a better use of your marketing budget by examining your existing customer flow and improving it?

Even small improvements in your checkout process could make a big difference to your bottom line profit.

The Rise Of The Phablet

More and more customers choose to do their buying on mobile devices. Mobile handset screen sizes are becoming bigger and “Phablets” are eroding Tablet market share.

Solving the problem of shopping cart abandonment has been trying the best of minds since eCommerce started providing a platform for shopping. But the 68.63% overall cart abandonment rate (Source: Baynard Institute) proves that there is still a long way to go:

Take Action Against Abandoned Carts

Now that we know why they abandon we can start doing something about it. On the basis that 80% of results are going to come from the top 20% causes let's look at the first two:

1. Presented With Unexpected Costs

If over half of your intended purchases are curtailed because of unexpected costs then this is the first area to focus on.

Do you provide information about delivery costs upfront? I know I'm often put off when I've decided to buy something and find the delivery cost tacked on at the end is unacceptable.

Make all your charges for delivery and extras as transparent as possible so customers know what to expect when they reach the checkout button.

If VAT or Tax charges are applicable make sure your customer knows about them upfront. Finding out that the total cost is 20% more expensive due to extra charges is guaranteed to lead to abandonment.

2. Found A Better Price Elsewhere

Competing on price is taking a short circuit to the bottom of an eCommerce race you can never win. Unless you are extremely lucky to be in a niche marketplace with few other players then prices will always be compared.

You can't beat the drop shippers who compete solely on price but where possible adding more value to your product is always a more preferable way forward.

You can add value by providing more product information and offering a more personalised shopping experience. Push relevant offers and offer coupons. Utilise buy online/pick up in store wherever possible.

Improve Your Shopping Cart

Sometimes you don't need to go to great expense or even time to fix problems that you didn't know existed.

For example:

Make It Easy To Edit The Shopping List

Have you ever been half way through an online purchase and had to go backwards and forwards checking your shopping basket as you go?

Provide a visible basket that can be seen on every page so that the customer knows exactly what they have before they approach the checkout.

Provide Thumbnail Images

When you are shopping in a store you know exactly what's in your basket because you can see it all.

As you hand over items to the cashier you can double check the right sizes and colours as you go.

Providing thumbnail images in your checkout process is a great way to reassure customers they have the right items in their basket.

Add Visible Security Badges

many people feel uncomfortable giving up their card details online so make their environment seem as secure as possible by providing highly visible security badges.

Use 3D Secure

Most UK banks now support 3D secure authentication and customers can be put off if it's not present. Use a payment gateway that supports 3D secure or equivalent security protection.

The Easiest And Best Method Of All

Use friends and family to browse your store and make dummy purchases. Try to find the least tech savvy people you know to use your store and you might find the results eye opening.

It's often the case that YOU know how to use the navigation but a complete newcomer to online shopping may find it difficult to use.

User experience (UX) testing should be a big part of your fight against shopping cart abandonment.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Most popular shopping carts have “abandoned cart emails” that can be customised and combined with coupon codes to entice customers to retrieve their shopping cart.

It's a great feature when used properly but don't forget to take the time to configure it accurately.

You don't want to be sending out emails to people who had their credit card declined for example.

Summary

They say prevention is better than the cure and in the case of abandoned shopping carts it's true. You'll probably never discover all the reasons people abandon but using the mobile device and testing the checkout process with technophobes has to be the simplest and easiest fix there is out there.

After that make sure there are no nasty surprises when customers reach the checkout and reassure them with security images and trust.